“Enemies of the State”: the silent crackdown on climate activists in Uganda

In December 2022, 34-year-old climate activist Bob Barigye had to make a life-changing decision.

This biology professor had already been involved in a national campaign against a controversial oil pipeline, but now he had to decide whether to go one step further and become the new leader of the movement.

Barigye knew the risks of accepting such a position—the previous campaign manager had just resigned after being arrested by the police—but he was also aware of the scale and importance of the work ahead.

So he agreed to lead this loosely structured movement led by determined activists.

One of his first assignments was to lead a dialogue to discuss the dangers of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (

).

This macro-infrastructure project will transport crude oil along 1,443 kilometers, from the oil fields of Uganda to the port of Tanga, in Tanzania.

According to the activists, its realization will displace 14,000 families, cause irreversible environmental damage and generate 34 million tons of carbon emissions per year.

The project is led by the French oil company Total Energies with 62% of the shares, along with the Chinese CNOOC (with 8%) and the oil companies of each African country (with 15%).

“They dragged me to a filthy cell, starved me... I couldn't sleep because they interrogated me at all hours of the night.

Now the police prefer psychological torture.”

Bob Barigye, climate activist

The meeting to discuss these risks was set for January 24, the same day that President Yoweri Museveni unveiled the first of the four drilling rigs that are part of the megaproject.

Before the meeting, Barigye had obtained police clearance and that morning he was in front of the hotel waiting to greet the environmentalists, activists, government officials and politicians who had agreed to participate.

However, shortly before the meeting began, police officers fanned out through the building.

“They started going through all the hotel rooms looking for me,” Barigye says.

“They were also kicking out the guests who had come to the talks.

They arrested me for obstruction of justice and disobedience to the Public Order Control Law, ”he adds.

Bargiye suspects that the security forces “deliberately sabotaged” the talks at the last minute when they learned that two opposition leaders (Kizza Besigye and Robert Kyagulanyi) were among the guests.

Bargiye spent four days in a cell, during which, according to the activist, he was subjected to "psychological torture".

"They threatened me and my family," he denounces.

“They dragged me to a filthy cell, starved me... I couldn't sleep because they interrogated me at all hours of the night.

Now the police prefer psychological torture, ”he details.

The EACOP pipeline works near Lake Albert, which is also being explored for oil.John Okot

Not attracting international attention

Museveni's government, clinging to power since 1986, knows the repression of dissident voices and the arrest of their adversaries.

as reported

, security forces kidnapped more than 1,000 people in the run-up to the 2021 elections, many of whom remain unaccounted for.

Most recently, police detained prominent opposition politician Joseph Kabuleta and on February 6, the Ugandan Ministry of Foreign Affairs notified the country headquarters of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR, for its acronym in English) that his mandate would not be renewed, just after the body expressed its concern about the actions of the Ugandan security services.

What is new, according to these activists, is the degree to which these repressive tactics are now used to stifle movements that oppose EACOP.

In the past two years, several people calling for the pipeline to be abandoned have been detained, and dozens of NGOs—including many environmental organizations—have been forcibly closed.

The government is full of greedy people who want to profit from the pipeline at the expense of the environment and are willing to get away with anything because the laws mean nothing to them.

Dickens Kamugisha, Director General of the African Institute for Energy Governance

“They see us as enemies of the state,” says Barigye.

“Now the police prefer psychological torture, because physical torture would give negative publicity to the pipeline project, which could scare off investors and insurers... The government doesn't want to attract international attention,” he adds.

According to the environmental leader, this strategy was what forced his predecessor in office, Jackson Ssemwanga, to leave activism in December 2022. At that time, the 37-year-old man and three other colleagues, including Barigye, were arrested. when they were going to the offices of a government agency to request that EACOP's environmental and social impact assessment be reconsidered.

The police kept them locked up for four days.

Ssemwnaga was transferred to an unknown location and upon his release he announced that he was leaving activism.

Unlike the other three, he was not brought to trial.

“Maybe the police threatened your life or your family.

We don't know yet,” says Barigye.

When

contacted by African Arguments for his version of events, Ssemwanga replied by phone: “I can't, it's not safe for me... My friends can continue their activism, but as far as I'm concerned

I'm taking a break."

Criminals in the eyes of society

Dickens Kamugisha, director general of the Kampala-based African Institute for Energy Governance (AFIEGO), also believes the government is trying to inject fear into activists.

The police forced his organization to cease its activity in October 2021, and he and five employees were detained for several days.

“The government is full of greedy people who want to profit from the pipeline at the expense of the environment and are willing to get away with anything because the laws mean nothing to them,” he says.

Newly paved and widened road to service drilling sites and oil wells along Murchison Falls National Park, in October 2022 Pablo Garrigós Cucarella (© Pablo Garrigós Cucarella)

Human rights activist and lawyer Maxwell Atuhura suggests that the government wants to "discredit activists and make them look like real criminals in the eyes of the public."

Atuhura was arrested in 2021 on charges of “incitement to violence” while conducting investigative work on communities that had been displaced by the EACOP, but had not received compensation.

Since then he has been on probation, which means that he continues to have to appear every once in a while at the police station, and that, officially, his case is still open.

The lawyer explains that “there are strangers” who follow him down the street, he affirms that he feels intimidated and that his family “lives in fear”.

Beatrice Rukanyanga, founder of the Kwatamiza farmers' group, an organization that has provided aid to displaced families and was also temporarily closed in 2021, says it's getting harder and harder to speak up in Uganda.

“When you fight against the felling of forests or against an oil pipeline because it affects future generations, they see you as an opponent, which shows that you are not free in your own country,” she laments.

Speaking to

, Kampala Metropolitan Police deputy spokesman Luke Owoyesigyire explained that the allegations of psychological torture against the activists "are without foundation" and that the police use "reasonable force" to obtain information from the activists. suspects.

“I do not understand how psychological torture can be measured or its magnitude.

If the activists believe that they have something to reproach, that they come and denounce it, ”he asked.

For his part, the spokesman for the Government of Uganda, Ofwondo Opondo, limited himself to describing environmentalists who fight for the climate as "a group of people who seek attention and who have not realized that the pipeline is designed to benefit to all Ugandans."

"The new corridor that will unite both countries will bring benefits, such as the development of new infrastructures, the transfer of technology and the improvement of the livelihoods of the communities along its route", the official EACOP website congratulates.

That the population does not know

Ugandan climate activists say their purpose is to have a peaceful dialogue with the government on EACOP and discuss the threats that the infrastructure poses to areas of rich biodiversity such as Murchison Falls National Park and Lake Victoria, where the pipeline will pass. .

They also want to have serious discussions about cleaner ways to generate energy and income for the country.

However, they say the government has only responded with harassment, intimidation, detention and torture.

For Barigye, the authorities want to avoid at all costs that public opinion is informed about the risks related to the pipeline.

So he has dedicated himself to teaching schoolchildren about the dangers of fossil fuels through his Green Club, which has more than 250 members across Kampala.

“I want to train young people to become a generation of climate activists who can take our place when we're not around,” he says.

However, even this strategy runs into difficulties.

In 2017, Barigye was fired from the school where he taught, partly because those in charge feared that his activities would attract the attention of the police.

“Our government doesn't want people to have information about the pipeline because, when they do, they will get up and ask embarrassing questions,” he concludes.

This article was originally published in English by the African Arguments website

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